Share “Mumford & Sons to headline Guthrie festival”

Mumford & Sons to headline Guthrie festival

George Lang •
Published: February 5, 2013

Mumford & Sons, the London-based folk rock band whose latest album, 2012′s “Babel,” sold over 600,000 copies in its first week, will bring its two-day “Gentlemen of the Road” festival to Guthrie on Sept. 6-7.

Tickets go on sale at 11 a.m. Friday for the event, which will take place at Cottonwood Flats near downtown Guthrie and will also feature Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Alabama Shakes, Willy Mason, The Vaccines and Those Darlins, with more performers to be announced. Mumford & Sons will headline and close the concert on Sept. 7.

The Guthrie stop for “Gentlemen of the Road” is one of only five scheduled performances including one stop each in England and Canada and domestic dates in Troy, Ohio and St. Augustine, Fla. Jamie Fitzgerald, director of marketing for DCF Concerts, the promoter of the event, said her company has worked for over three months to bring “Gentlemen of the Road” to Oklahoma. In each stopover, Mumford & Sons partners with the host city to bring in local vendors and food to celebrate the individual character of each town.

“They’re all centered on small towns,” Fitzgerald said. “They find a patch of land, set it up and people camp out. Lots of revenue for Guthrie and Oklahoma City, as well.”

Formed in 2007, Mumford & Sons’ debut album, “Sigh No More,” became an unexpected hit thanks to songs such as “Little Lion Man” and “The Cave,” earning the band Grammy nominations in 2011 and 2012. The band is nominated in six categories at this Sunday’s Grammy Awards.

Tickets for “Gentlemen of the Road” are $109 for the complete event and $40 for onsite camping, and can be purchased at www.gentlemenoftheroad.com.